Lobos cruise past depleted Hounds

ALBUQUERQUE — New Mexico placed six players in double figures and the Lobos ran away from a depleted Eastern New Mexico University squad 94-50 in a men’s exhibition basketball game at The Pit.

Junior forward Daniel Faris scored 15 points for the Lobos, who got 47 points and double-figure scoring from three players off their bench in their debut under new coach Steve Alford.

“This is pretty good for us,” Alford said. “This is our 20th practice and it was against somebody else, and I think that was going to be crucial to see how we did some things.

“I thought our rebounding was good, our shot selection was good. For the most part, I was pretty pleased with our defense. All in all, we had a pretty good night.”

The Lobos opened a 19-4 lead early and never looked back, going up by as much as 22 points before the Hounds closed to 45-30 at halftime.

UNM connected on 57 percent of its second-half shots (16-of-28) and continued to apply pressure, holding the Hounds to just four field goals and 20 points.

“I thought we played OK the last 10 minutes of the first half,” ENMU coach Shawn Scanlan said. “We semi-neutralized them, and played even with them for a stretch in that last part of the half.”

ENMU dressed only eight players, with four scholarship players sidelined by injury.

“Unfortunately, a lot of what happened to us tonight I sort of anticipated might happen,” Scanlan said. “We have been so impacted by injuries that we didn’t have enough options available to us to make some of the adjustments we would’ve liked.”